OUD building project (cocobolo / macassar)

I will use Cocobolo for this one (for the first time builder, go for mahogany or beech, although some beech kind of wood is not very stable)

I'm using a bosch table saw with a very thin carbide kerf blade (1,7mm) to save some wood/mone(this are expensive but save more money at the end and last longer), especialy if it is cocobolo, macassar or any exotic expensive wood.

When I buy a big piece of wood like cocobolo, I cut the whole lumber in pieces and let it dry for couple of mounts, after tha, I plan the pieces before starting sawing the ribs out. this pieces are about 3,5cm wide (width of the rib) and 70cm long.
depending of the lumber, some pieces can give from 8 to 15 ribs.

In this pictures, this particular piece of cocobolo gave me 9 nice ribs.
before cuting the ribs to final thikness, I usualy do some trial with regular wood before using the expensive one.

the final thikness is 2,8 mm.






for safety reason, always use dust mask, eye and ear protection.
I always, always use push sticks and (also side stick) , my fingers are more worth than any oud on this planet

final Ribs

the final ribs are equal in thikness and almost ready for use.
70cm it too long, I will shorten them by 2,5 cm. the usual lenght for a standard oud (not big and not small) is about 67,5 cm depending on the shape and the curve of the oud of course.
we will go more in details to that later.

neck and tail blocks

before bending the ribs, I would first build the ground where the ribs will be built on. neck and tail blocks

for the neck, first grade mahogany is a must. it is a very stable wood.
the tail block is made from spruce, about 6mm thick





the tools used also illustraed in the pictures. Hand saw, stanly Planerfile, stanley planner for the final adjustement

the final neck should be symetric, bit round and smooth. some testing with an already made rib show that the ribs fall perfect to the shape of the neck.
the measurement are 5cm at the neck joint. 4,5cm thikness of the block. 14 cm high and wide.

tail block

here are 2 type of tail blocks shapes. depending of the shapre we are looking fore.

the one I use for this oud is made from spruce (old piano soundboard).

!! I cant wait for this thread

so juicy

you are the master !!!!

tail block

I took a piece of spruce and traced the tail shape.
the measurements can be seen in the pictures
after some , plannig, tweaking and curving, the tail block is also little round and the end of the ribs will fall in to this round perfectly.
at the end the tail and neck blocks are mounted on a solide piece of paduk.

the distance from the end of the tail block to the beginning of the neck is exactly 49cm. when the bow is removed later it will move little backward to around 50cm

also, the flat part of the neck and the flat part of the tail are perfectly alligned, (can be tweaked later on if the soundboard is not flat at the first try)

oud shape

I have bended two ribs already to test and see how the final share will be approximatly.
Bending the ribs exactly the same can be a challange but with practice (trial and error) it should be easy.
I always use a half pattern to check the curve line of the oud.





I will get back to this later with more detail,

ribs layout

After the 19 ribs have been all shorted to 67,5cm (except the last 2 ribs at both ends), the layout can can be done. eventually bookmatching some ribs and playing with the layout.

A line is drawn on top of all the 17 ribs at the same level, and ribs get left and right marks and numbers.
After this all the ribs get the arrow layout with a pencil and then remove the excess with the bend saw.
(ribs 18 and 19 do not need to be cut yet as they will close both ends of the bowl)

I try to cut as close as I can to the lines to minimize the planing work after bending the ribs.

The arrow design can be copied from many oud around or by computer design program and tweaked the the shape you like to build.

purfrings

I have also bended 4 maple ribs to the same shape as the oud and cut about 40 purfling for in between the ribs (1mm thick) for both ouds using a small table saw with a very thin blade.

Ribs cut to shape

the ribs are cut very close to the lines of the shape, so less work is done when planning.

Sometimes it is not necesary to wet the wood, depending on the type of wood and the structure of the grain.

to avoid any risk of broken ribs or tear outs I have wetted the macassar and the cocobolo.

bending

the half oud shape on the table help me to get as close as possible when bending. it is very time consuming and finger burning part of te build
Any way a very important rule here is that the rib should fall square on the table, no twists at the back or the front and folow the shape with 0 pressure. if all the ribs have almost exact the same shape, the build is made easier later.

testing the curve

After planning the ribs with a Stanley hand planner, the rib should be perfectly flat and square, the ribs should land on the neck with ease just keeping the shape of the oud in place.

If we pull or push the ribs just a bit, it will loose it squareness and flatness and we may have to plan it again to fit the new shape (push or pull)

first 3 ribs

When i start building the bowl, I can choose to start by glueingthe first rib, let it dry and than 2 ribs(left right) etc, or I join the 3 first ribs together at one time with a thiny rope and purfling in between.

the ribs are then mounted on the free mould and the bowl build is now started.

ribs 3,4 and 5,6 etc are joined by masking tape. this tape has enouph pull power to squeeze the glue between the ribs, than we know we have a tight join.

By the way, I'm building another oud (indian rosewood) at the same time)

until next time take care guys

SO FUN TO FOLLOW YOUR WORK SAMIR !!!

meanwhile

Thank you Robert.

Back on track

meanwhile I took another old piano soundboard and used the dewalt thikness planner and plan it to 3,2mm.
using a shootingboard the two pieces are trimmed square until there is no light in between the joint than I used the jig to join the two pieces. the jig is very simple but very effective.

I used some moisture to clean the glue squeezed. the moisture also helps the join to get even more consistent.

using a handplaner(rasor sharp), scraper (scraper sharpening tool) and a sanding block, all is brought down to 2.0mm clean finish.

the scraper can get very hot and burn the fingers , ooch. but when it is has sharp edges, it is a joy to work with.

Bowls are finished

The bowls are finished and after have been removed from the mould, the shape of the bowl can be tweaked couple of mm to achieve the right size.
the size of the maccassar bowl in the picture is about 36cm wide, 50cm long.

Hi There, nice to hear from you. (what is èiaciuto ?) hhh
well I will first finish Indian rosewood oud for a friend beforr I go on holidays fo 10 days.
When I come back I will then finish this project doing the maccassar and the cocobolo oud all together.
On the cocobolo, I will use the old piano soundboard and old piano braces and see what's going to happen

thank you my friend

Quote: Originally posted by sabbassi

On the cocobolo, I will use the old piano soundboard and old piano braces and see what's going to happen

Hi Chris,

Sorry that I didn't mention it on this post, but I have already posted a story how I have got 4 old piano sound board from the local piano dealer
here is the link : http://www.mikeouds.com/messageboard/viewthread.php?tid=12162&p...

3 bowls

The bowls are finished but before i removed the tape, I use strong paper strips and hot glue to join the ribs inside.
I have already metioned this in another post

Yes Chris. it is lot of hard work, many people don't believe I work in the IT when they seem my hands
the whole piano soundboard only gives one proper soundboard for the oud, but the braces are very important also. so I have braces for 6 or 7 ouds .

japanese saws

These saw are a must to have. as for any luthier or woodworking lover, they make such clean and easy cuts.

so I use them for the braces, neck opening etc..

I also have made a little jig for the neck opening. as I have mentioned in other posts. the neck front side opening is 1 mm lower than the back side. in this case the neck when mounted will lean forward for the strings actions adjustement. we will get more in detail later on this.
so the neck front side opening is 16mm low , the back side is 15

Quote: Originally posted by sabbassi

the whole piano soundboard only gives one proper soundboard for the oud, ...

indian rosewood

I had to finish the Indian rosewood oud before I go on vaccation for a friend. I will get back to the build process as soon as I come back.

Hand made rosette is from Lemon wood.

here is a picture of the finished oud. destination is Spain.

I will update this project in 3 weeks from now Inchalah

Continuing

the braces are also from sruce and 4.7mm thick. for now the hight is 18mm for all of them.

the purfling around the big hole is inserted in the facetop (see picture) just like they do for guitar, this way the combination is strong for holding the shamsa later or even when touching the purfling. for the small ones the purfling is arount the holes.

glueing the braces : I prefere to glue the first 4 at the back to make any adjustement and to have a good view. when its dry I go for the next 3.

When all is cured, I down the braces like this, from back to front

a13mm, b16mm, b13mm, d16mm, e15mm f14mm g13mm

the distance between a an b does not exceed 8.9 cmmm
the distance between f g is about 5cm

all this number can be tweaked depending on the stiffness of the top and braces and the size etc..

Continuing

Mounting the top on to the body require a purfling around the inside of the bowl.
braces alone glued the the body is not enouph. just like they do with custom guitars. and is turn out to be very good for the sound later.

Cocobolo purfling for around the soundboard and some cocobolo inlay at the front.

Samir Hello and welcome back.

I am following with interest your work on these three new ouds.

Do you think to give their aesthetic and sound characteristics different?

Good luck and see you soon.

ondalud: In our arabic culture there is something we call al Baraka. dificult to explain but it is close to God gift. I can do my very best and try to make the best oud ever, but I need little Baraka to do it. for this oud also, he will have his own baraka and I'm alsmost sure it will be different from previous ouds in sound but will have same touch and aroma


Bulerias, I always use the inner strips, like they do in guitar.
I'm not a photoshop expert but you can use it for many things like lines, and curves, when you draw a line you can make start and end and shape it as you want using the tools.

Here are some pictures of the oud

specs:

- Pyramid lute strings CGDAFC
- Hand made rosette with lemon wood. thank you Alfaraby for the design
-Brasilian rosewood bridge
- highly figured root wood with black purfling around

The action is very low and smooth, 100% buzz free at firt use.

I will post a sound file later this week.

Samir, this is beautiful as usual....The sound is great as well

Great job man, keep up the good work

Seven course cocobolo

The Cocobolo oud will be a seven course oud this time.
the soundboard is master degree german spruce.
the rosettes purfling is made using black and white tiles, using hot glue to join the small pieces.
there is also a paper support under each opening to give an extra support.
when the hot glue is cured, the rosette purfling is very strong and can be sanded down carefully to the soundboard level.

Sanding, french polishing

Thank you Bulerias

The back has been first scraped and then sanded starting from 120, 150, 180, 220, 280, 360, 400, 600, 1000 and 2000 grid.
A pore filler is used as sealer to smooth the oud and give a nice fisnih with the french polish. 2 days of polishing should be enouph every now and then a new coat.

opening the pegbox/neck join

The opening is made carefully using japenese hand saws, the opening is not parallele to the fingerboard. to my opinion it gives a better look as we see later.

mounting and joining the peg box

after some tweaks, the peg box fits nicely, and when applying some pression the glue squeezes from the 4 openings.

french polishing the top (shellac)

The bridge is made ready first and the masking tape takes the shape of the bridge on the soundboard. this can be done by drawing with a fine pencile around the bridge , applying a masking tape, and then cutting around the edges of the pencil on the tape.

End project

HI Guys, the cocobolo oud is finished, I still have to make a nice rosette and mounted later this week.
the strings are on and it is ready to play some tunes. this is by the way my first 7 course oud.
the strings are labella FCGDAFC

Brasilian Rosewood bridge
root wood pickguard
strings lenght 58,5cm